Current Cases and Successes

#PrideInAlejandra

Alejandra fought for transgender human rights for more than a decade in El Salvador. She was forced to flee after repeated attacks and extortion by a criminal gang, as well as abuses by the Salvadoran military. Both the gang and military personnel sexually assaulted her because of her transgender identity.

Alejandra requested asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2017. But instead of offering her safety and a chance to rebuild her life in freedom, the U.S. government is detaining her in a private prison with inadequate and unresponsive health care.

She should be free – not behind bars.

Alejandra’s situation is not unique; there are many more trans people seeking asylum in the U.S. stuck waiting for months in detention centers where they are at risk of ill-treatment because of their gender identity, medical needs, or the trauma they have endured. It is cruel and unnecessary for the U.S. government to detain people fleeing here in search of safety from violence and persecution.

#LetSamIn

Sam is an Iraqi refugee stranded in Cairo, Egypt, after the U.S. government failed to keep its promise to resettle him. The U.S. accepted him for resettlement and he prepared to travel to the U.S. in October 2017. When the latest refugee ban went into effect, he was left in jeopardy because of the Administration’s discriminatory policies targeting refugees. He has a sponsor in the United States waiting to give him a home, but the U.S. won’t let him in.

Sam should be able to enjoy his human rights as a refugee, and shouldn’t fear for his safety because the United States failed to live up to its promise to resettle him. The U.S. accepted him for resettlement – and now it’s abandoned him, leaving his life in danger.

ASTRID & ARTURO

Astrid and her father Arturo are Indigenous K’iche who fled from Guatemala, where discrimination and violence against this community is institutionalized and widespread. They arrived at the U.S. border in 2015 and were put in detention. They were released the next day and began rebuilding their lives in Pennsylvania. Three years later, armed government agents ripped them from their home in the middle of the night, without warning or warrant, and locked them up in immigration detention.

Astrid turned 15-years-old behind bars. She missed her quinceañera celebration, which she had been eagerly planning. Her birthday wish was to be freed from detention with her father and return to middle school.

Despite having applied for asylum, Arturo and his daughter were detained for over a month. Our supporters all around the world heard their story, and quickly mobilized to make Astrid’s wish come true. After more than 1,600 phone calls and 78,000 signed petitions to the government, Astrid and Arturo were released from Berks, and she was able to return to school where she is in the eighth-grade.

#TheBerksKids

In 2017, four young children and mothers seeking asylum in the U.S. had spent nearly two years jailed in the Berks family detention center. Each family fled traumatic and life-threatening events, including kidnapping threats and severe sexual violence, in their home countries of Honduras and El Salvador.

Despite reporting declining physical and medical health, they were imprisoned for almost 700 days. Three-year-old Josue suffered from severe allergies, and learned to walk and talk behind bars. Others were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

After Amnesty International launched a campaign to get these families out, activists all over the world took action and in August, these children and mothers were finally freed.

But the battle doesn’t end here. No child should grow up behind bars. The government is trying to put these families back in jail, and new families continue to be locked up every day at Berks and other detention sites. Family detention is inhumane and undermines our country’s long history as a beacon of hope for people seeking safety.